Workarounds in Numbers 3.0?

In Numbers 3.0, some features have been lost that were in Numbers 2.3. However, I have seen some creative ideas in this forum for ways to work around the loss of features yet maintaining the functionality.

Autofill has gone. Workaround: enter your most used values into a column. Select all body cells in that Column and change the Cell format to pop-up. The pop-up will now contain choices for filling in other Rows.

Another workaround could be to use a lookup table of frequently used entries (each with a unique first character). Type the first character of an entry in one Column. The next Column fills in the full entry from a lookup table. After all, is this not how Autofill works?

Example 2:

Numbers 3.0 does not show dates in a Chart. Workaround: convert the dates to a Duration (day or week from the starting time) or even a number to represent time elapsed.

Some workarounds may seem to be clunky, but in Numbers 2 we also need workarounds!

Please keep this thread positive. By now, I think we have heard enough about features and functionality that seem to be lost.

Some hints if you have downloaded (and want to keep) Numbers 3.0 but you want to maintain your old documents in the Numbers 2.3 format:

- Numbers 3.0 is now your default app and will open a Numbers 2 document when you double click it. Do not rely on Get Info > Open with > Numbers 2.3. It may not stick.

Warning from t quinn "Opening a file in Numbers 3 can result in it being automatically saved in a new file format incompatible with Numbers 2. Loss of formatting and other changes may occur. Some features will not revert, even with File > Export To > Numbers '09. Make a spare copy of a document before you try this."

- Even after downloading Numbers 3.0, Numbers 2.3 is in a folder called iWork '09 inside your Applications folder. Drag the Numbers 2.3 icon to the Dock, right click (or control click) and choose Options > Keep in Dock. Open Numbers 2.3 from this Dock icon then open your old documents from within Numbers 2.3.

or… Right click on an old Numbers document and Open with > Numbers (2.3).

- I have a Numbers 3.0 icon on my Dock also, for when I want to try out some new feature. No problem, both versions will run at the same time. That way I can see if a feature has been lost, or whether it is simply in a new place. Dogs need to find where they have hidden the bone this time! Or, we may be wondering: "Who moved my cheese?"

No way to set margins. Workaround: Print the document as PDF. Open the PDF in Preview and use the Cropping Tool to crop out the white space.

Show Print View and Show Layout have gone. Workaround:Menu > File > Print to see the Print Preview. Use the Content Scale slider. Also, see where you can delete blank rows or columns, or make columns narrower, or drag objects to reduce white space. Not as easy as editing in Print View in Numbers 2, but you are still responsible for (and in charge of) the final look!

Reorganize panel has gone. How do I Sort selected rows? Workaround: copy those rows to a new table, sort, then copy and paste back.

Previous list:

Autocomplete has gone. Workaround: enter your most used values into a column. Select all body cells in that Column and change the Cell format to pop-up. The pop-up will now contain choices for filling in other Rows. Another workaround could be to use a lookup table of frequently used entries (each with a unique first character). Type the first character of an entry in one Column. The next Column fills in the full entry from a lookup table. After all, is this not how Autocomplete works?

Numbers 3.0 does not show dates in a Chart. Workaround: convert the dates to a Duration (day or week from the starting time) or even a number to represent time elapsed.

Here is an illustration of the work-around (I personally find it not just a workaround, but a better approach) that I posted elsewhere for the removal of the ability to type the first letter or two and have Numbers autocomplete the cell:

If you frequently enter repeating values in a column you could consider formating the cells as Pop-Up Menu:

If you've selected the whole column before formatting as Pop-Up Menu, your existing values in that column will pre-populate a menu automatically:

Then you remove the values you don't want in the menu, such as the column header (and quite possibly some previous spelling and capitalization inconsistencies too!):

And after this easy one-time setup all you have to do thereafter is to choose from the pop-up list for that column whenever you add rows:

That's all there is to it!

There's no keyboard shortcut to activate the menu such as they had in the old Numbers (I hope they'll add one) but the Pop-Up Menu approach has some advantages over autocompletion: no spelling inconsistencies or lack of capitalization when there should be capitalization, etc.

And should you ever want to take your Numbers with you, in a touch interface pop-ups are more efficient than activating a virtual keyboard and tapping the first few letters of items.

Create a Custom Format in a Numbers 2 document. Save. Then Save As… a copy with a new name so Numbers 3 can't snaffle your original Numbers 2 document. Open the copy in Numbers 3 and the Custom formats will be listed in Format Inspector > Cell Data Format. The Custom Formats are carried over and they work.

Note: copy and paste of cells from Numbers 2 to Numbers 3 does not carry the custom format. Pasted cells end up as Text format.

Menu > View >Show Rulers. Drag Alignment Guides from a ruler to where you want them. Caution: the rulers and/or Alignment Guides may not be accurate. Try Format Inspector > Arrange > Position (or Size) to see if that works better for you.

When duplicating an object (such as a nicely formatted Table that you want to reuse) select the Table, copy, and before you paste, click on the canvas below or beside. Pasted Table will automatically be aligned with the original.

Menu > File > Print to see the Print Preview. Use the Content Scale slider.

Also, see where you can delete blank rows or columns, or make columns narrower, or drag objects to reduce white space. Not as easy as editing in Print View in Numbers 2, but you are still responsible for (and in charge of) the final look!

Custom Formats no longer available. Workaround:Create a Custom Format in a Numbers 2 document. Save. Then Save As… a copy with a new name so Numbers 3 can't snaffle your original Numbers 2 document. Open the copy in Numbers 3 and the Custom formats will be listed in Format Inspector > Cell > Data Format. The Custom Formats are carried over and they work. Note: copying a custom formatted Cell or Table in Numbers 2, then pasting into Numbers 3 does not work. The Custom cell(s) are pasted as text.

I can't add a shadow to a Table. Workaround: insert a rectangle Shape, Arrange > Send To Back, slide it behind the Table. Use the Alignment Guides to drag and resize the rectangle. Numbers > Preferences > Rulers > Alignment Guides. Turn them on.

No way to set margins. Workaround: Print the document as PDF. Open the PDF in Preview and use the Cropping Tool to crop out the white space.

****

Show Print View and Show Layout have gone (update). Workaround hints:

Menu > View >Show Rulers. Drag Alignment Guides from a ruler to where you want them. Caution: the rulers and/or Alignment Guides may not be accurate. Try Format Inspector > Arrange > Position (or Size) to see if that works better for you.

When duplicating an object (such as a nicely formatted Table that you want to reuse) select the Table, copy, and before you paste, click on the canvas below or beside. Pasted Table will automatically be aligned with the original.

Menu > File > Print to see the Print Preview. Use the Content Scale slider.

Also, see where you can delete blank rows or columns, or make columns narrower, or drag objects to reduce white space. Not as easy as editing in Print View in Numbers 2, but you are still responsible for (and in charge of) the final look!

****

Reorganize panel has gone. How do I Sort selected rows? Workaround: copy those rows to a new table, sort, then copy and paste back.

Autocomplete has gone. Workaround: enter your most used values into a column. Select all body cells in that Column and change the Cell format to pop-up. The pop-up will now contain choices for filling in other Rows. Another workaround could be to use a lookup table of frequently used entries (each with a unique first character). Type the first character of an entry in one Column. The next Column fills in the full entry from a lookup table. After all, is this not how Autocomplete works?

Numbers 3.0 does not show dates in a Chart. Workaround: convert the dates to a Duration (day or week from the starting time) or even a number to represent time elapsed.

Insert Date menu pick is gone in Numbers 3.0. Workaround: create an Automator Service that retrieves the date and time from the system clock and pastes it into the selected cell in Numbers. This service can be accessed via Numbers>Services in the menu or can be assigned to a keyboard shortcut. For details see this thread. Thanks to alexhax and slypix for refinements.

(You may need to remove 'Day of the week' from your "Full" date format in System Preferences>Language & Region for it to give you the desired result.)

Thanks for your help in this workaround thread, and the "What has been GAINED in the Numbers 3.0 upgrade?" thread and the many ways you have shown leadership in keeping us all level-headed in this transition to Numbers 3. This broad workaround thread can never have a single "This solved my question" reply (sic, should read "This solved my problem").

You deserve the green tick from this thread. Bravo!

New

Thanks Kev50 and Al Gunther.

Both of your workarounds for the loss of Print View and Show Layout are added to the top of the following updated list.

In some language settings, month names (intended to be simply that, names of months) are converted to dates. Workaround: in this thread, https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5484435?start=0&tstart=0 the consensus from users seems to be that date recognition in Numbers 3.0 is a bit too clever. Force the month names to Text Format by typing a single quote (apostrophe, ') before each date name. Or, type a space after each date name.

I can't change the name of an axis in a chart. Workaround: click on the chart to select it, then in Format Inspector > Axis > X or Y > Axis Options > put a tick in Axis Name. From Numbers 3.0 Help: "If you selected an Axis Name checkbox, Numbers adds a placeholder axis name to the chart. To change it, triple-click the name on the chart, then type your own." [I am not sure if this a workaround or a GAIN in Numbers 3.]

From SG: Insert Date menu pick is gone in Numbers 3.0. Workaround: create an Automator Service that retrieves the date and time from the system clock and pastes it into the selected cell in Numbers. This service can be accessed via Numbers>Services in the menu or can be assigned to a keyboard shortcut. For details see this thread. Thanks to alexhax and slypix for refinements.

(You may need to remove 'Day of the week' from your "Full" date format in System Preferences>Language & Region for it to give you the desired result.)

********************************

Updated list:

Show Print View and Show Layout have gone (update). Workaround hints:

Work out where the pages are in print preview and then draw a line on the side of your Sheet. That line will hold it's position if you make changes to your row heights or add photos etc. It will add pages to your overall sheet, but then just select the page range to print.

Save a modified Numbers file to Numbers '09, make any required print view adjustments there and save. Then open in Numbers 3.0 and see if it prints okay. You may find that one line spills over to the second page; deleting one blank line may make a second try perfect. Perhaps the top or bottom margins are smaller than the default size in 3.0.

Menu > View >Show Rulers. Drag Alignment Guides from a ruler to where you want them. Caution: the rulers and/or Alignment Guides may not be accurate. Try Format Inspector > Arrange > Position (or Size) to see if that works better for you.

When duplicating an object (such as a nicely formatted Table that you want to reuse) select the Table, copy, and before you paste, click on the canvas below or beside. Pasted Table will automatically be aligned with the original.

Menu > File > Print to see the Print Preview. Use the Content Scale slider.

Also, see where you can delete blank rows or columns, or make columns narrower, or drag objects to reduce white space. Not as easy as editing in Print View in Numbers 2, but you are still responsible for (and in charge of) the final look!

****

In some language settings, month names (intended to be simply that, names of months) are converted to dates. Workaround: Force the month names to Text Format by typing a single quote (apostrophe, ') before each date name. Or, type a space after each date name.

I can't change the name of an axis in a chart. Workaround: click on the chart to select it, then in Format Inspector > Axis > X or Y > Axis Options > put a tick in Axis Name. From Numbers 3.0 Help: "If you selected an Axis Name checkbox, Numbers adds a placeholder axis name to the chart. To change it, triple-click the name on the chart, then type your own." [I am not sure if this a workaround or a GAIN in Numbers 3.]

Insert Date menu pick is gone in Numbers 3.0. Workaround: create an Automator Service that retrieves the date and time from the system clock and pastes it into the selected cell in Numbers. This service can be accessed via Numbers>Services in the menu or can be assigned to a keyboard shortcut. For details see this thread.

Custom Formats no longer available. Workaround: Create a Custom Format in a Numbers 2 document. Save. Then Save As… a copy with a new name so Numbers 3 can't snaffle your original Numbers 2 document. Open the copy in Numbers 3 and the Custom formats will be listed in Format Inspector > Cell > Data Format. The Custom Formats are carried over and they work. Note: copying a custom formatted Cell or Table in Numbers 2, then pasting into Numbers 3 does not work. The Custom cell(s) are pasted as text.

I can't add a shadow to a Table. Workaround: insert a rectangle Shape, Arrange > Send To Back, slide it behind the Table. Use the Alignment Guides to drag and resize the rectangle. Numbers > Preferences > Rulers > Alignment Guides. Turn them on.

No way to set margins. Workaround: Print the document as PDF. Open the PDF in Preview and use the Cropping Tool to crop out the white space.

Reorganize panel has gone. How do I Sort selected rows? Workaround: copy those rows to a new table, sort, then copy and paste back.

Autocomplete has gone. Workaround: enter your most used values into a column. Select all body cells in that Column and change the Cell format to pop-up. The pop-up will now contain choices for filling in other Rows. Another workaround could be to use a lookup table of frequently used entries (each with a unique first character). Type the first character of an entry in one Column. The next Column fills in the full entry from a lookup table. After all, is this not how Autocomplete works?

Numbers 3.0 does not show dates in a Scatter Chart. Workaround: convert the dates to a Duration (day or week from the starting time) or even a number to represent time elapsed. The DATEDIF function will help to calculate days (or months or whatever) from the starting date.

For me this is working as a temporary solution, I distinguish between the two with Mavericks tags. A second option is to always open the files from within the right version, using cmd+O or to use the menu object Archive->Open recent.

Many thanks for the tip on pop-ups instead of auto fill. Now, can we get the pop-up in alphabetical order because I have a random list entered chronologically of approx 250 items and the look up takes a wee too much time to make it effective?

Now, can we get the pop-up in alphabetical order because I have a random list entered chronologically of approx 250 items and the look up takes a wee too much time to make it effective

Copy your list of 250 items to a temporary table. Sort Ascending. Select all cells, then Format Panel > Cell > Data Format > Pop-Up Menu. A new Pop-Up Menu will be created with the items in alphabetical order.

Copy a cell and Paste to your original table. Select all cells in that Column. Then Merge Menu Items:

IMHO you are pushing the limits of Pop-Up Menus with 250 items . I have not tested to see if a Pop-Up allows 250 items.

The good news is that Apple has promised to add "Auto-complete text in cells" by May 2014.

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